Sweden tries to break Turkish rebuff in talks

VILNIUS, Lithuania—Sweden’s prime minister will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday in a last-gasp attempt to bridge a diplomatic impasse over his Nordic state’s stalled NATO membership drive. The high-stakes talks on the eve of an alliance summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius come with NATO keen to demonstrate unity in the face of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

NATO and the White House both fear the Kremlin is trying to use its strong ties with Turkey to seed divisions among Western allies.

US President Joe Biden is expected to raise the issue when he meets Erdogan on the sidelines of the twoday event.

Erdogan has voiced repeated frus- trations with what he calls Sweden’s failure to keep its promise to deal with suspected Kurdish militants allegedly “roaming the streets” of Stockholm.

“Sweden has taken some steps in the right direction,” Erdogan’s office quoted the Turkish leader as telling Biden in a call Sunday.

But Sweden’s decision to allow proKurdish groups to “hold demonstrations freely praising terrorism nullify those steps,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan’s stance is being supported by Kremlin-friendly Hungarian Prime Minister Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The two countries remain the only NATO members still standing in the way of the unanimous ratification needed for Sweden to become the 32nd member of the US-led bloc. AFP

FULLY GUARDED.

US President Joe Biden arrives in ‘The Beast’ in Downing Street in central London Monday, ahead of his meeting with Britain’s Prime Minister. US President Joe Biden is in Britain for a brief visit to his key ally during which he met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before meeting King Charles III, and going on to a NATO summit in Lithuania. AFP planned deployment of US strategic nuclear assets to the Korean peninsula as “the most undisguised nuclear blackmail” to North Korea, saying it posed a grave threat to regional and global security.

“The present situation clearly proves that the situation of the Korean peninsula is coming closer to the threshold of nuclear conflict due to the U.S. provocative military action,” it read.

Washington said in April that it would send a nuclear-armed ballistic submarine to make the first visit to a South Korean port in decades, without specifying the timing.

North Korea has conducted multiple

Biden visits UK ahead of summit

LONDON—US President Joe Biden was in Britain Monday for a brief visit to his key ally during which he will meet King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before going on to a NATO summit in Lithuania.

Ahead of the visit, the White House said Biden would seek to “further strengthen the close relationship” with Britain.

The king will host Biden at Windsor Castle, a royal residence west of London, where they are due to discuss climate issues, long a subject close to Charles’ heart.

It will be their first meeting since the monarch’s coronation in early May.

The president did not attend, sending First Lady Jill Biden instead, but the Bidens were at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September.

Earlier in the day, Biden will meet Sunak for their fifth meeting in recent months.

Downing Street has said the president’s visit “reflects the strong relationship” between the two countries.

Sunak traveled to the United States last month for a two-day visit where the leaders discussed Ukraine, AI regulation and post-Brexit ties.

They also agreed to a new economic partnership, the “Atlantic Declaration.”

Biden said the United States has “no closer ally” than Britain.

But Sunak came away empty-handed on the UK’s ambitions for a post-Brexit free-trade agreement with Washington.

The two countries are key allies of Ukraine and Russia’s invasion of its pro-Western neighbour is likely to top the agenda on Monday, after Biden pledged to supply Kyiv with controversial cluster munitions. AFP sanctions-busting launches this year, including test-firing its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles, and in May attempting to put a military spy satellite into orbit.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol has ramped up defense cooperation with Washington in response, staging joint military exercises with advanced stealth jets and high-profile US strategic assets.

Yoon is set to attend a NATO summit in Lithuania this week, seeking stronger cooperation with NATO members over North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats, his office said. AFP